Launchy
Deploy HA PostgreSQL, MySQL, & Redis on bare metal & VPS
About 2 weeks ago, I published the landing page for Launchy.dev, an app to help developers manage database servers for their apps.
Here's my original post with the thesis and rationale for such a product: https://www.indiehackers.com/product/launchy/friend-tells-me-i-should-make-this-into-an-app--NU1tTQZSWh4h7ZPhKLh
State of the product:
While I have an internal version built, I don't feel like it's a good version to release to the public. It's too complicated to use and finicky. Being an internal tool, bugs and errors could always be worked around.
I'm looking at ways in scoping down a version that's well polished for the target market.
Creating awareness:
This month, I posted the product to the following places looking for feedback:
- Twitter: Got ~900 impressions (the algo is really stinking these days), 7 likes, and 3 RTs. There were 15 click-throughs.
Here is the tweet: https://twitter.com/geetfun/status/1649392564280197120
- Reddit: I posted Launchy.dev to two reddits.
First, I tried /r/roastmystartups looking for feedback. The mods removed the post and no reason was given. The post wasn't asking for anything except feedback (which was what the sub is for).
One feedback was given before the mods took the post down. I had thanked the Redditor giving the feedback.
Second, I posted in the weekly thread at /r/saas. It got one upvote and some awareness.
Beta launch signups:
Over the past 1.5 weeks, there were about 5 beta user signups. This is still a bit low and an indication that growth in this (if any is to be found) would be slow.
Next Steps:
Launchy.dev is really a tool I use myself and I'd like to have a polished hosted version for my own consumption.
My goal is to continue working on it and seeing what happens.
Now that I have several people expressing interest in trying it out, it's a bit more encouraging. I'm going to try and raise awareness of such a tool and see if there is more demand here.
Like many developers, I got pulled into the consulting world and never left. The lifestyle and money was good enough that I didn't want to return to the world of making products.
Service, it seems, was where it's at for quick and consistent income.
I sometimes do devops for companies, managing their databases and application servers. In many cases, companies want to set up their PostgreSQL or MySQL servers internally rather than use an off-the-shelf managed DB.
There are many reasons for this, but it's primarily they want to have full control over their servers and the price/performance of running things themselves are about 1000% cheaper.
I developed an internal tool years ago to handle the deployment of these databases, set up high availability, replication, backups, and perform configuration changes... all within a nice UI.
A colleague-friend of mine have been telling me to release this as a product for years, citing that many people would find this useful.
Well, it's 2023 and I decided to see if my friend is right.
I've set up a landing page at https://launchy.dev to see if anyone wants to beta test the app.
Like the birth of many apps, this one happened out of necessity (scratching my own itch). Now, it's time to see if others have the same itch and need it scratched.
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